


and this is the end of the story

by weatheredlaw



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, M/M, Multi, Sadness, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-09
Updated: 2012-05-09
Packaged: 2017-11-05 01:44:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If it's the end," Tony murmurs, "you know what to do."</p><p>Bruce really wishes he didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and this is the end of the story

**Author's Note:**

> i actually hate myself

Later, JARVIS will thank him for doing it, when Pepper cannot.

It will not strike Bruce as very odd that the AI is grateful, because he has spent hours in this lab, learning about Tony and learning about these things that make him _Tony_ , JARVIS being one of them. 

 

 

Tony asked him to, so he did it. He can't say why he never gave it a second thought, why he knew there wasn't another answer. Probably because Tony asked him to, and if Tony couldn't think of one last-ditch effort to save his own god damned life, then Bruce sure as hell knew he wasn't going to find one either. His clothes are hanging off of him and Tony's blood is in his mouth and on his neck and chest and fingers.

The arc reactor flickers.

 

 

_If I'm going to die, you're going to crush this thing, understand?_

It's what he'd said.

Bruce figures it's what he'd meant, too.

 

 

Tony's body is a miracle, and anyone who could get their hands on the reactor might not want to save the world with it. Bruce knows about Obadiah. About people trying to make themselves into warlords and princes and emperors and kings. He knows that man will do an awful lot for very little, because he's been shot at by people with very little to gain. He's been torn apart by his own emotions and put back together by sympathy and he understands that people are wildly, utterly, completely out of control.

There's a reason his rage manifested itself into something far beyond the tangible. Into himself.

Tony's body is a miracle. His brain is a miracle. The very fact that he wakes up and continues to breathe every day is a fucking miracle.

Men like Tony aren't allowed to die.

They just aren't.

 

 

"Can't be fixed," he murmurs, setting the pieces on the table. 

Pepper isn't sure if he's talking about Tony, the chest piece, or himself.

Either way, he's right about it all.

 

 

Bruce watches him die, because that is his lot in life.

 

 

"I just wish I could see...could see what it was really supposed to be like." 

There are pices of the arc reactor in his palm, but he's too tired to take them out. Natasha removes them carefully, pouring alcohol on his hand. Steve watches from the corner.

"You did as you were told. Orders are orders."

"I am not a soldier," he murmurs. "I'm a fucking scientist."

 

 

"I hope you understand," he whispers. "This is nothing personal."

Tony Stark dies with a smile on his face, Bruce's hand over his heart, reactor crushed in his hand.

 

 

Seven hours before, when the sun hadn't come up yet, Tony came undone under Bruce's fingers and slipped into an easy silence. Flat on their backs, they stared at the ceiling and Bruce talked about the world, Tony about the war, the war that never seemed to end.

In reality, they were talking about the same thing.

And then Tony had leaned over and dragged his teeth from Bruce's neck to his hip, sucked on the crook of his knee, rested his head on his stomach, and went to sleep. 

It was familiarity that drew them together. And something similar that tore them apart.

Bruce is trying very hard not to think about it.

 

 

"I think he might have been completely crazy about you," Pepper says. Bruce suspects that she's know they were fucking for a while, but that she never really minded. She leans forward, taking his hand in hers and threading their fingers together. "We both were," she murmurs. 

"I think you're both just crazy," is all he can say. Pepper smiles. 

He kisses her, because it feels right. 

She acclimates to his tempo rather well, and when he pushes into her, slow and quiet and peaceful, she humms and begins to cry. She's laughing, somewhere along the edge of that. She's laughing and gripping Bruce's shoulder, legs hooked under his ass, pulling him in close. He knows she knew. She watched. She listened. 

He comes, shouting into her shoulder, shaking and catching his breath. There is nowhere to run from here. Pepper smooths his hair back and kisses him. Her voice is heavy as she thanks him, as she loves him and crosses her fingers over his heart and he wonders if she's thinking of a different one. What it must have been like, when it was just the two of them, at the start.

Tony never talked about it. 

"I wish it could have been us, like this." He knows what she means. "You only did what you had to do."

 _Just following orders,_ he doesn't say. 

 

 

"If it's the end," Tony murmurs, "you know what to do."

Bruce really wishes he didn't.


End file.
